On December 30th, 1524, they entered into a contract with the monks of San Agostino, who were still in their father's debt 50 scudi, that they should remove his body from Fontignano and bury him in their church, and the sons agreed to pay for the Mass. Mariotti says that there was in his time no proof that that ever was done, but the very fact of the contract proves that nothing could be said to the discredit of Perugino's life or character, and refutes idle rumour as to his atheism.
A spot was pointed to Mariotti half-a-mile from Fontignano as the place of Perugino's burial, but he records that, although nothing was found when this spot was examined, yet he could never find any proof that the devout wishes of the three sons, Giovanni Batista, Francesco, and Michel Angelo, were ever fulfilled. It is most probable that owing to the plague and to the war, which at the time were raging in Perugia, the removal of Perugino's body was delayed, and so eventually quite forgotten. No man, therefore, knows where the great artist was buried, and the burial-place he bought at SS. Annunziata in Florence, was unoccupied. Mariotti states that his only descendant was a grandson, one John Battista Vannucci, whose name appeared as a scholar in the University of Città della Pieve. It is, therefore, quite possible that the plague carried off not only the artist, but shortly afterwards his three sons also. Pietro's wife was one Chiare Fancelli, a very beautiful girl, whom he married, 1st September 1493, in the Canonica in Perugia. She was the daughter of Luca, an architect and surveyor in the service of the Marquis of Mantua. Tradition states that she was the model for the angel with Tobias in the National Gallery. She brought him a dowry of 500 gold ducats, and had in all seven children; and Vasari states that Pietro was exceeding fond of her, and so proud of her beauty that he loved to give her beautiful jewels and costly dresses, and to adorn her with his own hands. After his death she wrote in 1524 to the Marchioness of Mantua offering her a picture by her husband (not now known) of "Mars and Venus discovered together by Vulcan," which was for sale. This information Braghirolli discovered. She was still living in 1540.
Of Perugino's scholars who so closely followed their master, it will suffice just to mention Lo Spagna, Eusebio di San Giorgio, Giovanni Batta Caporali, Tiberio d'Assisi, Giannicola Manni, Rocco Zoppo, Baccio Ubertini, but the glory of Raphael has overshadowed them all.
It may be well finally to review briefly the characteristics of the artist, and of his work. Perugino appears to have been a man of great determination, Lupatelli says of iron will. He had known poverty in his early days, and had faced it. He was determined to push his way and make a living, and, if possible, a great name; and he succeeded in his purpose. Brunamonti speaks several times of his desire to go ahead, and it is quite clear that he was ambitious and energetic, and hence his success. There is no proof whatever that he was irreligious, or, as Vasari implies, atheistic, but his face betokens a mind that would not ordinarily be satisfied without argument and examination, and it was perhaps his controversial habits that obtained for him the character that Vasari has recorded. His employment by the Church, not only by the Chief Pontiff but by numerous dignitaries and by many religious orders, and the arrangement just mentioned and entered into by his sons as to his burial, sufficiently refute Vasari's statements; but beyond this, it is inconceivable that such pictures as the Pazzi "Crucifixion," the San Severo "Deposition," the Vallambrosan "Assumption," to name but three typical ones, could be painted by an irreligious man. I am disposed to consider his portraits as his finest works, and to me the portraits of the two monks of Vallombrosa reveal him as a great master, very skilful, and possessed of wonderful power.
His more popular compositions are many of them of striking beauty, especially in the delineation of faces, in the landscape, and in the colouring, and, above all, in that wondrous genius for representing open limitless space to which attention was given in [Chapter I]. Perugino is never dramatic, he is always lyric, and the poetical charm of the Umbrian school is at its very zenith in his hands. He is not passionate, as is Botticelli, nor strong, moving, and forceful as is Signorelli.
The delights of movement, the extremes of rage or desire, did not appeal to him. He was not as diversified as was Lippi; he never reached the stolid impressiveness of Ghirlandajo, nor the ecstatic devotion of Fra Angelico. He was not so purely illustrative as was Pinturicchio, but very far exceeded him both in genius and in power. The emotions of pathos were not beyond his reach, the stateliness of dignity he could represent if he desired, but his charm is in the calm quiet of his pictures, in their tender reverence and exquisite sweetness, in their poetry rather than in their power. His creations are dreamy and contemplative, full of faith, hope, and expectation, and they embody and express the reality of a spiritual world of serene peace and satisfaction which, in its contrast to the world around us, speaks of the revelation of a faith that is true. His execution is masterly, his colouring mystic and glorious, his compositions are complete and united, his sense of decoration is excellent. He was himself sincere in his work, and his pictures therefore embody this sincerity, and their teaching is to lift the soul from sordid thoughts, and to raise it to Heaven itself.
CHAPTER X
SAINT SEBASTIAN
There is a tradition in Umbria that upon two occasions Perugino painted miniatures on vellum, and that these works formed pages in two missals or Books of Hours. Several times the story was repeated to me, in Florence, in Perugia, and in other places, and it appears that at one time manuscript evidence of the fact existed in Rome, and may still exist. Of one of these pages I can give no information, as the most diligent inquiry has failed to identify it; but the other one, the earlier of the two, according to the Roman story, is now in England.